


We Could Be Friends, Me and You

by godamnarmsrace



Series: Cain Dingle and Robert Sugden BFF [1]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Aaron has nightmares, Cain and Robert are bbfs, F/M, Gen, M/M, Protective Robert Sugden, Robert Sugden needs a friend, Robert needs advice, concerned husbands, confused Robert Sugden, post prison storyline, uncle-in-law
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-30 23:36:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10887261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/godamnarmsrace/pseuds/godamnarmsrace
Summary: What if Cain and Robert were BBF's?





	We Could Be Friends, Me and You

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the wonderful [@smittenwithsugden](https://smittenwithsugden.tumblr.com/) for her birthday and edited by the bestest beta Matty [@blueswinseverytime](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewinseverytime/pseuds/Bluewinseverytime)

**_Six months ago._ **

Robert didn’t know what he was thinking - Okay, he knew, he was just pretty sure he was nuts. He was standing outside the garage, contemplating going inside to speak to Cain about Aaron’s nightmares. It had been three months since Aaron came home from prison and the bad dreams were still happening, just as regularly as they had when he’d first gotten released.

Robert was more than a little bit pissed at Aaron’s therapist. She seemed fairly useless, with only broad spectrum ideas on how to fix things, but his husband needed someone to talk to and at least she could be that for him.

“Why are you loitering on my property Sugden? Shouldn’t you be home, doing gross newlywed things to my nephew?” Cain said when he spotted Robert standing there.

Robert wasn’t about to back down or give up just because Cain was giving him the stink-eye. “I need to talk to you about Aaron he…”

“No,” Cain said, dismissing him before he could finish. Robert watched as Cain walked back into the garage and out of sight. He wasn’t afraid of Cain, he could totally do this. He was more afraid for Aaron, getting so stressed by the nightmares that he might hurt himself on purpose or from lack of sleep. “It’s important, it’s about his time in prison. He’s still having nightmares. Please, Cain, you must know I wouldn’t have come to you if it wasn’t bad,” Robert said, as he followed Cain into the garage.

“Worried about him messing with your beauty sleep?” Cain mocked, wiping his dirty hands on an even dirtier rag. It was distracting. Why would anybody bother?

Robert pulled himself out of his internal quest for logic and said “What? No, but he does keep trying to move into the spare room because he doesn’t want to keep waking me. I could not give two shits about losing sleep, I just want to sleep with my husband beside me and I am worried if this continues he might revert to self-harming. I’m already checking him every night for new marks. He knows what I’m doing and he’s humouring me for now, but Cain, we can’t keep this up. He’s hurting and I don’t know what to do.”

Cain just stood there for a minute, looking at Robert as if he was silently judging his entire existence. Cain pinched the bridge of his nose before letting out a deep sigh, the harsh gust of air illustrating his irritation.

“There’s this thing, that I did after getting out, that helped but it will only work if Aaron agrees to it. He must be committed to finding a solution out of it, otherwise, it is a waste of time,” Cain said, his words clipped and low as if to stave off the chance of anyone overhearing their conversation.

Robert knew better than to interrupt, he waited for Cain to continue.

“It’s call IRT, basically Aaron will need to write down all the details from his nightmares and then change the theme. Give the dream a new ending, write a joke, make him taller than his opponent, something to change the flow of the dream. The other thing he can try is to think about what he’d like to dream about instead. He needs to do this for about twenty minutes before falling asleep each night, to help break the negative thought processes surrounding those memories,” Cain explained. He turned back to his work clearly finished with Robert, it was an obvious banishment.

 

**_Five and a bit months ago._ **

Cain looked up from the engine he was pulling apart and let out a grunt, “Why are you here?”.

“I wanted to say thank you. The dream therapy thing you told me about, it seems to be working. Two weeks and only two nightmares. Both times instead of closing himself off to the outside world, Aaron has gotten up and written down the dreams, reworking them in his mind. So, thanks,” Robert said, unable to contain his gratitude. Aaron was starting to look and act like himself again and he knew it was an ongoing issue but at least now Aaron had a tool at his disposal that he could utilise, to take some of the sting away from his nightmares.

“His therapist should’ve suggested it,” Cain said, obviously not comfortable with Robert singing his praise.

“Yeah, well she isn’t very good but it was a struggle to get Aaron to agree in the first place and he needs someone to talk to,” Robert wished he’d known how hopeless she would be when they were looking for someone.

Cain gave him a look that just about screamed he thought that Robert was an idiot. “He has you to talk to.”

“Yeah, but what do I know? I don’t want to say the wrong thing and make things worse,” Robert argued, the last thing he wanted in the world was to make things hard for Aaron, when Aaron made every one of Robert’s days better just by existing.

“You don’t have to say anything Robert, just keep you’re your mouth shut and listen. Sometimes people just need to be heard. Why don’t you go practice that somewhere, far away from here?” Cain said, going back to his work, leaving Robert standing there his mind completely blown by the level of Cain’s insight.

 

**_Three months ago._ **

“Are you fucking serious with this? I’m not your buddy or your friend. We are not going to bond and braid each other’s hair. You need to stop coming to me,” Cain said, throwing the spanner down into the toolbox at his feet when he saw Robert hovering once again. He stopped and reconsidered, “Is Aaron okay?”

“Yes, it’s just we’ve been fighting about…” Robert tried to explain, sure that if Cain would just hear him out he might have the perfect solution for all of Robert’s problems.

“Robert,” Cain all but snarled.

“Yeah?” Robert asked, trying not to seem too needy.

“I don’t care, now do one,” Cain said, his voice one angry line.

Robert left full of disappointment, turning his feet towards the pub and his sister’s sympathetic ear. It was a Tuesday, today might be a day when that compassion was for him and not Aaron. However, it was hit or miss and Robert knew he could be just as easily walking into a lecture. He had such high hopes for Cain helping him out again, but the rejection was getting embarrassing. He wouldn’t do this again…not unless it was to help Aaron.

 

**_Two months ago._ **

Robert’s phone beeped, letting him know that Aaron was late, stuck in traffic on the way back from a scrap run. He didn’t mind, he was enjoying his pint at the bar. Organising his schedule in his mind, while he considered pulling out his phone and calling Liv. He thought better of it, they could do it when Aaron finally showed up because he’d want to talk to his sister too - they both already gave him shit for calling so often.

Glad, they were going to have dinner here, Robert was knackered it had been a long week and no cooking, meant no dishes, which meant after they’d eaten he could take his husband home and upstairs to their bedroom. He could count the new freckles that Aaron had gotten from working in the sun with his sleeves rolled up.

Startled out of his plans of stripping Aaron naked and licking him one inch at a time, Robert was surprised to see Cain. He pulled up the stool next to him at the bar and order himself a pint.

Robert watched his uncle-in-law down half the pint in the first minute, before even setting it down on the bar. He stared at it for several minutes before lifting it to his mouth for another large gulp. Cain looked at Robert, seemingly acknowledging that he was there and watching him, but he said nothing. He just raised one sardonic eyebrow, before draining his glass and getting up off the stool.

“Good talk,” Cain said, in the same gruff tone as ever, then left. Robert ended up sitting alone in the pub wondering what the fuck just happened. And he was still in shock and completely confused when Aaron finally showed up and sat down next to him.

“You okay?” he asked Robert, the soft touch of Aaron’s hand on his arm filling Robert with giddy butterflies. They always used to piss him off but now he loved it, and now he hoped they would never disappear.

“What?” he asked trying sort it all out in his head and failing.

Concern touched Aaron’s features and he tilted his head to one side studying Robert rather intently. “You’ve got this weird look on your face. Did something happen?”

Robert didn’t really know what to say to that, so he just went with the basics, “Cain was just here.”

“What did he do?” Aaron said looking disgruntled. “What did you do?”

“Nothing,” Robert said offended at the thought.

Aaron let out a little huff of breath clearly, bored of talking in circles with Robert. He didn’t know what else to say because he really couldn’t fathom what was so weird about Cain being in the pub.

“Well, then that explains it. I’m gonna get a curry. You?” Aaron said, after looking at Robert for a few seconds longer.  

“Curry sounds good,” Robert agreed.

 

**_Today._ **

Robert’s meeting Aaron again in the pub but this time instead of Aaron running late, Robert is just early.

“Pint please Vic,” he asks, sitting down at the bar, happy to relax after the crazy day he had.

“You could just get your own Robert,” Vic suggests, as she pulls his pint for him. “Can’t you see how busy it is?”

“I don’t work here and I don’t live here anymore,” he argues, she huffs and puts the pint down in front of him.

“If you want food you should order it soon, there was a mix up with the ordering and we are running out of everything,” Vic pulls a face and gestures at the kitchen as if she is blaming it all on Marlon.

Robert smiles at her but doesn’t acknowledge her implication, he knows that is a slippery slope into rage and accusation. He just wants to sit quietly with his pint, instead, he says, “I have to wait for Aaron.”

“Please yourself, but don’t come crying to me if all that’s left is the makings for a cheese butty,” Vic turns away to serve another customer and Robert finds him smiling into his pint over her antics.

“I wouldn’t dare,” he replies, he’s smarter than that.

Cain chooses that moment to come into the Woolpack and sit next to Robert.

It is deja-vu. Robert watches as he orders a pint and then drinks half of it. Cain puts it on the bar in front of him and runs his fingers up and down the glass making tracks in the condensation.

It’s somewhat hypnotising and when Cain speaks Robert almost falls off his chair.

“So, Moira invited me to dinner but I didn’t go because I was too busy having sex with Harriet,” he mutters under his breath, so low Robert has to lean closer just to hear every word.

Robert works his jaw, trying to make words come out after that shock revelation when Cain just continues without waiting for a response.

“This was a few months back but now I’m thinking it was a big mistake you know? I could have been working towards getting my marriage back on track instead I’ve been doing the vicar in the confessional.”

Robert just has no words. Which is just as well because Cain hasn’t finished.

“So, then Moira calls me this morning, she’s having trouble up at the farm and was wondering if I might be interested in giving her a hand and then staying for dinner after. So now I either go up to the farm and ‘fix’ whatever isn’t working, right or I turn her down again and spend the night playing saint and sinner with Harriet.”

Seriously, Robert looks around, hoping for a witness to whatever the hell is currently happening, because he’s about two seconds away from pinching himself.

“So, I guess the question is, what I have with Harriet, is it anything? Is it going anywhere? Or is it just a bit of fun, because I was bored with my existence and she gave me some lip one day? If it is something, is it more than what I had with Moira?”

Robert watches as Cain downs the rest of his pint and stands, he reaches out as if he is going to touch Robert. He can’t stop the flinch before it happens but Cain notices and pulls his hand back and puts it in his pocket.

“Okay, so good, this was helpful. Thanks, Robert,” he grunts as he turns to leave only to run into Aaron who just entered the pub. He nods in greeting to his nephew, “Aaron.”

“Cain,” Aaron says confused by his behaviour. “What the hell was that?” Aaron asks, with his hands on his hips, it’s very distracting for Robert, even in his befuddled state.

Robert shrugs, still not sure himself.

“Oh, my god, are you like friends with Cain?” Aaron asks, with horror written all over his face.

“What? No…maybe, I don’t know,” Robert replies. Were they? Who the fuck knew? Cain had spoken to him twice in the past two months and both times he’d left Robert feeling like he’d been abducted by aliens or something.

“Oh god,” Aaron says, sitting down next him and putting his head in his hands. “I can’t even begin to imagine the chaos.”


End file.
